Chez Jim: 28 books

Le Grand d'Aussy traces French bread history from the first Tameliers and Fourniers to the Boulangers whose bread evolved from a simple boule to the pains mollet of the seventeenth century and the long breads which already began to replace round breads in the eighteenth century. Along the way he looks...

One of the most complete histories of wine in France was written in the eighteenth century, a long chapter within Le Grand d'Aussy's masterwork on French food and wine (hopefully but misleadingly titled “History of the private life of the French from the origin of the nation until our days”)....

In the fourteenth century, French kings prized such fare as peacock, storks and herons. Guillaume Tirel not only cooked these dishes, he left a book on how to do it. Because (it is said) he had a long sharp nose, he was nicknamed "Taillevent" ("Slice-wind"), and his classic cookbook...

A collection of original monologues, exploring the issues around suicide from multiple viewpoints. Grouped into four sections, for use individually (for class, performance, auditions, etc.) or as a complete production.

Thirty teen voices - flirting, mocking, musing, some fun, some serious, on subjects as different as loss, texting and (yes) spaceships. Monologues for practice, class, audition and performance from the author of "Monologues for Teens and Twenties". NOTE: Certain of these pieces...

A woman who killed three men in a sword fight; drunken musketeers assaulting passers-by; a wife whose husband brought his mistress home and beat her when she objected.... These are just some of the colorful figures from eighteenth century France in this addition to the Old Regime Police Blotter series,...

Edgar Allan Poe's classic work of graphology, which includes as much literary criticism as it does handwriting analysis, and also serves as an overview of the major literary figures of his time - some still well-known, many forgotten. This edition includes an introduction and a Biographical Dictionary of Poe's Subjects.

Yes, an Austrian brought the croissant to France - but it wasn't Marie-Antoinette. In 1839, the Parisian press began to mention a new "Viennese Bakery" and its "exquisite and crisp rolls". Zang, its founder, had been an artillery officer and would become a press magnate. In his...

“Your heart's pounding, you sweat, and you feel like you're going to vomit..." Tom Cruise Tom Cruise is far from the only celebrity to overcome bullying to attain huge success. If bullying is a problem for many in high school, it is even more of a problem for those who are different...

A sourcebook of homicide, suicide, rape and prostitution cases from 18th century France, most from previously untranslated material. Sources include periodicals, Bastille records, police reports and contemporary true crime accounts. Within each subject, material - most of it from the period - is...

In Pre-Revolutionary France, sodomy (in all its different meanings) was, in theory, a capital crime, whether practiced between men (sodomites), women (tribads), heterosexual couples or (since it included masturbation) alone. In practice, most sodomy cases involved men, though this collection includes...

The Bastille is most known for being destroyed - it has endured as a symbol of absolute power that fell to popular anger. But few people, even in France, know anything about the actual prison, notably what it was like inside and the details of how the prisoners were really treated. As it happens,...

Simon Bolivar said of Eloy Demarquet: “Demarquet does not know how to lie or slander; I believe him loyal and sincere”. Though this French officer, a veteran of Napoleon's wars, is rarely mentioned in works on Bolivar, the latter's correspondence documents the close relationship between the two...